A randomized controlled trial of the influence of yoga for women with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The short version

This randomized controlled trial with 94 women explored whether a 12-week yoga program could ease symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, a condition marked by intrusive memories, avoidance of reminders, and heightened arousal following a traumatic event) after a motor vehicle accident. All participants had PTSD tied specifically to a car, motorcycle, or pedestrian accident that occurred at least three months earlier. The intervention used Kripalu yoga, a style emphasizing gentle self-observation and the connection between mind and body rather than intensive physical exertion, compared against an active control condition built around social conversation and board games. Ninety-four women were randomly assigned to a yoga group (47) or control group (47); 37 and 39, respectively, completed the trial through a 3-month follow-up. The yoga group attended six 45-minute sessions across 12 weeks, practicing breath awareness, body-focused attention during postures, and tolerance of physical discomfort under a yoga instructor's guidance. The control group met on the same schedule for daily-life conversation and games. Psychological distress was measured with two self-report instruments, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), completed at baseline, immediately after the program, and three months later. After the program, the yoga group's total IES-R score, covering intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms, was significantly lower than the control group's (p = 0.01, meaning the difference was unlikely due to chance), with the difference concentrated in intrusion (p = 0.002) and avoidance (p < 0.001) rather than hyperarousal, which did not differ significantly. Intrusion and avoidance remained significantly lower in the yoga group three months later (p = 0.037 and p = 0.005). On the DASS-21, total distress scores were significantly lower in the yoga group both immediately after the program (p = 0.043) and at three-month follow-up (p = 0.024), with depression (p = 0.033, then p = 0.004) and anxiety (p < 0.001, then p = 0.035) each significantly reduced compared with control. The stress subscale of the DASS-21 showed no significant difference between groups at either timepoint. Both groups improved somewhat over time, including the control group, which the authors attribute partly to the social contact built into the comparison condition. The authors describe the results as preliminary evidence that a structured yoga program reduced depression, anxiety, and the intrusion and avoidance symptoms of PTSD in women following a motor vehicle accident, while finding no measurable effect on stress or hyperarousal. The trial enrolled a relatively small, single-site sample of Chinese women, tested only one yoga style, and relied entirely on self-report questionnaires rather than clinician-rated diagnostic measures. The authors point to comparing yoga styles and isolating which specific session components drive symptom change as directions for future research.

Key findings

• A randomized controlled trial of 94 women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a motor vehicle accident found that a 12-week Kripalu-style yoga program (a gentle style of yoga emphasizing breath awareness and self-observation) was associated with significantly greater reductions in PTSD symptoms than an active control condition of conversation and board games.
• The PTSD symptom improvement was concentrated in the intrusion (unwanted memories) and avoidance (avoiding trauma reminders) symptom clusters of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), while hyperarousal (heightened alertness and startle response) did not differ significantly between groups.
• Depression and anxiety scores on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) were also significantly lower in the yoga group than the control group at the end of the 12-week program and again three months later, but the stress subscale showed no significant difference between groups at either timepoint.
• Both groups showed some improvement over the course of the study, including the control group, which the study authors attribute in part to the social contact built into the comparison activities.
• The trial was conducted at a single site in China with a relatively small sample, tested only one style of yoga, and relied on self-report questionnaires rather than clinician-administered diagnostic interviews, so the findings do not establish how yoga compares with other therapies or how it would perform in larger or more diverse populations.

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